US Public Universities Focus Their Recruitment On White and Wealthy Students, New Research Suggests

a year ago

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In light of recent college admissions scandal, CNN has released a report providing a portrail of a typical enrollee sought by public US colleges. Sadly enough, most colleges still "focus their recruitment of wealthy white students." The Typical Student team learned more about the statistic provided by researchers from UCLA and the University of Arizona.

As researchers have discovered, during the recruitment trips, reps for different US colleges typically try to sell their school to potential enrollees by discussing campus life, academic programs, and the application process. One of the findings suggests that college reps make "recruiting prospective students from affluent and white communities" their priority. Ozan Jaquette, one of the research authors suggests as follows: "(But) universities are purposely recruiting middle-achieving, high-income students because they need tuition revenue."

State US Colleges Rely On Nonresidents' Tuition

According to the research, the University of Alabama became the "worst offender" among all of the researched schools. In 2017, the school reps made 4,349 recruitment visits, 392 of them visits occurred in Alabama, neglecting high schools in Alabama's "Black Belt" that contains the largest concentration of students of color.

Underrepresented Student Groups Are Often Missed Out

The study showed that students from low-income families have a skewed access to public universities. In researchers' opinion, the college recruiters "should provide opportunities for students to receive application-fee waivers and help them understand the application process." Wil Del Pilar, the vice president of higher education policy at The Education Trust, encourages colleges and universities in the US to "be intentional about going to schools where they haven't traditionally gotten students."